Victoria sends fire crews, equipment to New South Wales

Victorian fire crews, equipment and personnel are heading to New South Wales to help fight the 100 bushfires burning in the state.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says there will be a mix of CFA crews and trucks, Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) staff and two incident management teams who will work over the weekend.

Mr Lapsley says CFA and MFB staff went in overnight to help assess the damage on the ground as part of the critical assessment process.

"We've got CFA trucks leaving northern Victoria to head up the Hume Highway. They'll meet at Wodonga this morning then travel into Sydney," he said.

Mr Lapsley says central Australia is very warm.

"I was in Mildura on Wednesday. It was three per cent relative humidity which is a very, very dry day," he said.

"That dry air coming out of central Australia is something we should watch."

Mr Lapsley says the fire intensity at Lithgow was quite significant.

"Yesterday, in a fire intensity sense, the fire at Lithgow travelled 25 kilometres in an hour running into the bush. Now that is quite significant," he said.

Fire scientist Dr Kevin Tolhurst says despite early spring rain in southern Victoria, it is still very dry in the north and inland.

He says when it comes to the fire threat, information is vital and too many Melburnians still do not have a proper fire plan.

"They see it as a fairly remote possibility," Dr Tolhurst said.

"When there's an event such as (what) we're seeing around Sydney at the moment, the vast majority of the people affected haven't really prepared their properties and haven't really prepared their own plans of action adequately to be prepared to cope with the situation and therefore the impact of the fire becomes much greater."